Hungarian First Army

The Hungarian First Army was a field army of the Royal Hungarian Army that was activated by Miklos Horthy on 1 March 1940 alongside two other field armies. The army did not see much combat at the start of the war, and it took part in the 30 August 1940 annexation of northern Transylvania from Romania, and it served on occupation duty until 1944. On 30 April 1944, the army was sent to bolster Army Group South Ukraine during the war with the Soviets, and it was pushed back at Targul Frumos in May 1944 and in the Lwow-Sandomierz Offensive. Bela Miklos, commander of the First Army, defected to the Soviets with some elements of the army in December, and Miklos became the head of a newly-formed Hungarian government that declared war on the Nazis and Ferenc Szalasi's pro-German government. From 1 January to 16 February 1945, much of the army was overrun, bypassed, or destroyed by the Soviet 40th Army during the Budapest Offensive, and remnants of the army fought alongside Gotthard Heinrici's 1st Panzer Army in Slovakia. On 8 May 1945, Laszlo Dezso surrendered the army to the Soviets.